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Topic: Pre-boil gravity issue (Read 595 times)

I brewed up a quad today, completely missed my pre-boil SG/volume and am trying to figure out where I went wrong. Info is below, and I wound up hitting my targeted OG with an extended boil/addition of roughly .75lbs of DME. I'd appreciate any help you guys can give, a few of my recent brews were a bit lower than expected and I'm trying to understand what I'm doing wrong.

Quality of crush is always a good place to start followed by how well you doughed in. Also, how well did you stir the mash prior to first runnings and again at sparge, you really need to stir like hell to knock all the sugars loose.

Then there would be the mash pH to consider as well for proper conversion

Quality of crush is always a good place to start followed by how well you doughed in. Also, how well did you stir the mash prior to first runnings and again at sparge, you really need to stir like hell to knock all the sugars loose.

Then there would be the mash pH to consider as well for proper conversion

I ran the grain through the mill twice, and got what I thought was a good crush. I didn't stir prior to the first runnings, maybe that's part of the problem? Prior to the second runnings I stirred pretty well, and for the pH I followed the additions per Bru'n water but I didn't measure.

1:1.25 is pretty thick. I would loosen the mash up quite a bit if your doing a single infusion push it up a little, maybe 1.5 that gets you ~20 qts out of first runnings. f your kettle is big enough you can sparge with another 10 qts or so, do an extended boil to get the extra water out.

alternately you could have sparged again and done a second runnings small beer.